Yahoo Movies Boy Meets World actor Will Friedle says he nearly starred in a spin-off that was 'like a young Friends '
Boy Meets World actor Will Friedle was almost the star of his own television show.
Friedle, who played Cory's (Ben Savage) ditzy older brother Eric Matthews, revealed that his character nearly left the show to star in a new series spearheaded by showrunner Michael Jacobs that saw Eric trade in his Philadelphia roots for life in Los Angeles in a "young Friends"-style sitcom with his pal Jack Hunter (Matthew Lawrence).
"I was going to leave the show at one point. To the point where Michael and I had had meetings — we had had meetings with ABC — he had already written to it," Friedle said on Tuesday's episode of Pod Meets World. "There's a certain scene where [Mr. Feeny, played by William Daniels] says, 'Do you know what you're going to do in life?' And I [say], 'No.' And it's because there was a good chance I wasn't going to come back the following season because Michael and I — well, it was all Michael, but I was in on the pitches — pitched an idea where Eric moves to Los Angeles."
Friedle said that conversations about the spin-off took place between season 4 and season 5 of Boy Meets World. "We met with ABC, we met with Disney," he explained. "[Jacobs] had the pilot all set up."
He also provided a glimpse at the pilot episode's opening.
"Eric was driving his car, and the start was going to be he jumps the ramp at the Santa Monica Pier and the car slams onto the beach. Eric stumbles out and just walks into the ocean, and that was going to be the start of the episode," Friedle said. "It was going to be like a young Friends, and he was going to have me meet these people in Los Angeles."
In fact, Friedle said that the show looked like such a real possibility that Jacobs started alluding to Eric's sendoff within Boy Meets World.
ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images 'Boys Meet World' star Will Friedle
"We not only had meetings and talked about it. He wrote to it on Boy," he said. "So you can actually see a time where it's like, 'Oh, they're writing me off,' and it was because Eric was going to have a spin-off."
In the end, Eric and Jack's L.A. adventure wasn't meant to be and Eric stayed with his family for all seven seasons of Boy Meets World instead. "I'm not even sure why it never happened, to be honest with you. I just never left Boy," Friedle said. "I never got a reason why we didn't do it."
Listen to Friedle talk about the epic Eric spin-off in the podcast above.
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